Friday, November 25, 2011

Inheritance Cycle

I have a bone to pick with Inheritance. So this post will be me ranting. Oh well!

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been reading Inheritance, the last book of the Inheritance Cycle. Well, I've finished. And I am deeply disappointed. I don't know if it's because I'm much older now — I started the series when I was in sixth grade — or the book was really just subpar compared to the previous books.

Spoiler Alert!!!

First, Inheritance dragged. It really did. There was too much of Roran's point of view. And the chapters spent supposedly "developing" Roran were pointless. It's not like Christopher Paolini ended up making him a plot contributing character. He didn't help defeat Galboratoeix, nor did he become king. And when I read a fantasy novel, like Eragon, I read it for magical fun, not boring no magic Roran.

Second, the plot was a mess. Paolini seemed to have written himself into a corner: his antagonist, King Galbortorix, was too strong and had no weaknesses. So in order to have Eragon defeat him, absurd advantages were given to him. Absurd even on fantasy standards. They suddenly found a magical dragon slaying weapon and eldunari, hearts of dragons, not in Galbortorix's control, and dragon eggs hidden from Galbortorix? What? And the final battle was almost as anticlimactic as sucky twilight. And the conclusion was a fail.

Although I was shipping Eragon and Arya a lot, I'm not too upset that they did not end up together – I probably would have done the same thing if I was in Paolini's position. I am, however, very upset that their relationship almost didn't develop at all. Yes, Arya finally warmed up to Eragon and I guess they did share their true names – something done only when one knows another for a long time. But come on, none of that spells LOVE. And you really can't not have an epic romance when Eragon has been longing for her for three books.

Oh and the green dragon, I forgot about that. Oh wait, I think Paolini did too. The green dragon didn't appear until the end, kind of as an afterthought, a mate for Saphira for about a week. And this brings us back to Eragon and Arya. They just stand by idly while their dragons mate, not at all gonna give that romance thing a go? And why? oh why? Why, Paolini, did you decide to take the magic and dragon spectacular away and replace it with boring super magic? That's why we all read Eragon to begin with. For the dragons and magic. This book was meant to entertain and entertain it did not.

Finally, supporting cast development was nonexistent. Paolini had such a rich character lineup to work with. But he chose to develop NONE of them. Except for Roran. I do not consider Roran a main character. Eragon and Saphira and Arya were basically the only main characters. Orik just about disappeared. Nausuada had some development when she was kidnapped but that lasted about 50 pages of the 800ish pages of Inheritance. And when Queen Islanzadi died. What? She's the almighty elf queen. How does she just die so casually and easily. And I wasn't saddened by her death. Her death felt just the same as another random soldiers death, except I felt a tinge of sadness for Arya losing her mother. But not Islanzadi. And that's cause Paolini didn't develop her! Agh! Paolini!

There's more to hate but that's borderline nitpicky so I'll just leave it at what I have written.

I guess I'll mention the one tiny part I liked: the nausauda and murtaugh scenes. It was cute that Murtaugh had fallen for her. And the scenes in the prison were touching. But I guess Paolini could have improved that part by showing instead of telling. He just told us they were having moment. I would have liked to read a moment they were having. And the romance was so short-lived, Here I go, hating, again. Oh! I did like the introduction of werecats, but like the rest of the supporting cast, there was too less of them.

Argh, why did Inheritance suck so much. The characters saved it from completely sucking. Well, actually just Arya, Eragon and Saphira were getting boring. I really like Arya, she has a lot of characteristics I admire: self-discipline, virtue, loyalty, poise, courage, intelligence, and skill. She ranks high on my mental list of favorite fictional characters. I really had liked the Inheritance Cycle. Maybe my tastes have changed or I've grown, matured. But I hate to think that's true. I borrowed The Gril With the Dragon Tattoo from my friend. So I will read that next. I hope it doesn't suck. I would hate to have read two sucky books in one week.